2006 Turin Winter Olympics Blog

Biathlon, Women’s 4×6km Relay

Gold Russia
Silver Germany
Bronze France

It should come as no surprise that the USA did not win a medal in this. I’m sure our biathlon athletes work just as hard as our figure skaters, snowboarders, speedskaters and other more decorated athletes, but they just don’t ever seem to even come close. I wonder why that is… Incidentally, the Americans finished over 9 minutes back, in 15th place.

Women’s bobsled

Gold Sandra Kiriasis, Anja Schneiderheinze Germany
Silver Shauna Rohbock, Valerie Fleming United States
Bronze Gerda Weissensteiner, Jennifer Isacco Italy

Nordic Combined, Sprint

Gold Felix Gottwald Austria
Silver Magnus Moan Norway
Bronze Georg Hettich Germany

Biathlon, Men’s 4×7.5km Relay

Gold Germany
Silver Russia
Bronze France

Women’s short track 1500m

Gold Sun-Yu Jin South Korea
Silver Eun-Kyung Choi South Korea
Bronze Meng Wang China

Women’s Biathlon 10 km Pursuit

Gold Kati Wilhelm Germany
Silver Martin Glagow Germany
Bronze Albina Akhatova Russia

Biathlon: women’s 7.5 km sprint

Gold Florence Baverel-Robert France
Silver Anna Carin Olofsson Sweden
Bronze Lilia Efremova Ukraine

Cross country: women’s 10 km classical

Gold Kristina Smigun Estonia
Silver Marit Bjorgen Norway
Bronze Hilde G. Pedersen Norway

Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was suspended Thursday after she failed a doping test. This made her the first athlete to test positive at the Turin Games. Pyleva won silver at the 15km event Monday and was scratched from the field just before the start of the 7.5km sprint.

I have to say it took some guts to use any illegal substances during this Olympics, since Italy has said they will criminally athletes who test positively for banned substances. So, now we’ll see whether they follow through with that. Personally, I hope this is the last time in this Olympics that it’s a problem, but realistically it probably won’t be.

Biathlon Men’s 10 km sprint

Gold Sven Fischer Germany
Silver Halvard Hanevold Norway
Bronze Frode Andresen Norway

Women’s 500m speedskating

Gold Svetlana Zhurova Russia
Silver Manli Wang China
Bronze Ren Hui China

Women’s single luge

Gold Sylke Otto Germany
Silver Silke Kraushaar Germany
Bronze Tatjana Huefner Germany

Gold Svetlana Ishmouratova Russia
Silver Olga Pyleva Russia
Bronze Martina Glagow Germany

Germany brought home the first gold in the 2006 Turin Olympics. Michael Greis managed to cross the finish line before Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, clinching gold in the biathlon. Bjoerndalen finished 16 seconds behind Greis, whose time was 54 minutes, 23 seconds. Fellow Norwegian, Halvard Hanevold, took the bronze in 55:31.9.

Skiing and guns seems like a dangerous combination, but in the Winter Olympics this combination is known as biathlon. Biathlon is very popular in areas like Germany, Norway, and Russia. In other parts of the world it’s much less well-known. At the Turin Olympics, there will be four events for men and four for women.

So, what is biathlon?

Each event consists of a cross-country ski race. Along the race route, there are shooting stops: two stops for the sprint and relay; four stops for the pursuit and individual events. Half of the shooting stops are standing and half are lying down.

At each stop, competitors have five bullets and five targets (50 m away) to hit. Time or distance is added based on how the athlete performs in the shooting. Each miss in the sprint, pursuit, and relay events results in a 150-m penalty loop. Each miss in the individual event adds one minute to the athlete’s final time.

In the relay, each four-person team has three extra bullets at each shooting stop. The extra bullets must be hand-loaded one at a time, and they must be used until all five targets have been hit or all the bullets have been shot.